Martin, Donna and Amy Drake: 2006

We’ve now been here for just over 2 years. Last Christmas we split our time between Donna’s mum & dad in Auckland then went to Waiheke Island which is less than an hour from Auckland central, but a world away – more like a small Greek Island. We spent 5 days there over new year with a bunch of mates including Paul from Milton Keynes who was out in NZ for a few months. We had a great time there, walking cycling drinking, visiting vineyards and swimming in the sea.
Back in Christchurch, with a concerted effort we finally got the house finished – well, I got it finished whilst Donna went out to work for a living. The final touches were just a matter of creating lawns and pathways – out of the several tonnes of stones I dug out of the garden to make the lawn, and building a postbox – mail is only delivered to the end of your drive here – ok unless you live on a farm and your drive is several miles long! I just managed to get everything done before we left for the winter.
Winter seemed to arrive a good month earlier this year by my yardstick of my last swim in the ocean which was at the end of April rather than May. In june we had a heavy snowfall, although thankfully it didn’t affect us much and soon melted, but people further south and inland were without power for weeks. As if that wasn’t a cue to leave, we’d already planned to spend a few months in England, and left at the end of June, packing the house up and leaving it in the hands of a letting agent. This was to be my annual trip back for 2 weeks work at Abbey (now Banco Santander), and visiting family & friends, but got extended by 2 friends getting married – one at the beginning of July and one in August. Wayne asked me to be Best Man, so we had to be back in time for the stag night on 1st July, which we spent at Henley Regatta. My dad’s birthday was the following day and with a bit of conspiring with my sister we managed to keep it from them that we were coming back and managed to surprise them. Unfortunately due to being in Henley the night before, a suicide on the line causing a train delay, and a trip back to London via Guildford, then an electrical fault causing us to go to Birmingham via Stafford, we didn’t arrive until after 9pm – 11+ hours to travel about 150 miles!
The wedding in London went off very well, with the service at a church used in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, a boat trip on the Thames and a reception at the Ritz. Two days later I started my two weeks work which turned into seven weeks due to the fact that the Spanish have made so many people redundant there’s hardly anyone left to do the work. I even ended up doing recruitment interviews, mmmm don’t ask. The second wedding in the midst of all this was Robin’s, another excellent do and a stag weekend of exercise in Snowdonia – and not just the elbow variety.
The day before I finished work, my sister Susan went into hospital at short notice (she got a cancellation) for an operation, so we went up to stay at her house and look after her when she came out for a couple of weeks. This was quite handy as my mum is currently wheelchair bound and unable to negotiate her stairs. Unfortunately this curtailed our plans somewhat for the rest of the trip and meant we didn’t get to spend so much time with my mum and dad as we’d hoped. Mum had a knee replacement this time last year and hasn’t been able to straighten the leg properly since. She’s just had the other one done and we’re hoping for better things this time. Anyway we managed to spend the last week or so with them, seeing us through to the 20th September, including mum’s birthday on 17th.
The plan had always been to spend some time in Asia on the way back, including a Hash House Harriers event in Northern Thailand. Here’s a rough summary of the trip. Skip to the end of this paragraph if you like! Starting at the beginning, we had one night in Singapore where we wandered around Chinatown and had something to eat. Its a strange idea having a Chinatown in an essentially Chinese city. Next morning we travelled to the causway by public transport and crossed to Malaysia. Went straight up to Melaka, had a bit of a look around and one night there then on to KL. 2 nights there and a day looking around then up to Penang -stayed in the heart of the old town on Love Lane! Again a couple of nights, and a day touring round the sights. Boat from there to Langkawi for another 2 nights and hired a car for the day to travel around. Boat from there to Thailand. 2 nights in Krabi, boat trip up river walked up a mountain to a temple at the top. 2 nights in Phang Nga - walk in National Park, boat trip out to islands of the bay including the one where they filmed a bit of The Man with the Golden Gun. Got sick of the rain so got bus and ferry to Ko Samui. 2 nights agian and hired bikes for the day to see enough of the placce to decide we didn't want to stay. Boat to Ko Tao. 4 nights - including the England Macedonia game 11pm kick off. Managed 5 dives including a refresher dive & test. Did a bit of walking and beachy stuff too. Boat and bus for 1 night in Bangkok (don't sing) then bus to Kanchanaburi where we spent 3 nights including my birthday (card's in the post I know). Nice place in the middle of no-where with pool, so a bit of relaxing plus the Bridge on the River Kwai, few museums, National Park with big waterfall. Bus to Ayutthaya - 2 nights, old capital - lots of ruined temples, and floods. Train to Pak Chong - 2 nights, Khao Yai National Park - bats, snakes, scorpions, deer, macacques and gibbons. Long bus trip overnights to Chiang Rai 4 nights including hill tribe trek, museums, local hash, trip to Myanmar for an hour or so to renew Thai viisa. Doi Inthanon National Park - waterfalls and Thailands highest mountain - lowest temperature of the trip 12 degrees at 2500m. Chiang Mai 6 nights - hotel with pool, temples, cookery course - and Interhash - few beers, couple of runs, few more beers.. Then flew back to SIngapore for one night and a bit of shopping/sightseeing - and the odd Singapore Sling in Raffles.
Arrived back to 3 superb days followed by winter again - snow on the mountains and rained with us. Apparently it’s been a really bad winter and is reluctant to go, and we’ve got an El Niño pattern again. House is still let till 8th December so travelling round in the camper van and visiting Donna's folks. Donna’s mum recently moved to Dannevirke which is 7 hours drive from Aukland and about 4 from Wellington. So we spent a week or so here, then went up to Aucland for almost 2 weeks then came back here last week for the wedding. After something like 16 years of living together, Donna’s mum and Noel finally decided to tie the knot.
So after 5 months on the road and living out of a backpack, we’re on the home straight and finally looking forward to going home. Donna is itching to get a job, as despite her best intentions and going throught the motions (and expense) of getting another work visa for the UK, she didn’t manage to pick anything up – too many East European immigrants doing those temping jobs these days. I might even look for something myself!